This aerial photo provided by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department shows mudflow and damage to homes in Montecito, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. Anxious family members awaited word on loved ones Wednesday as rescue crews searched grimy debris and ruins for more than a dozen people missing after mudslides in Southern California on Tuesday destroyed over a 100 houses, swept cars to the beach and left more than a dozen victims dead. (Matt Udkow/Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP)

From The Reading List

Los Angeles Times:Many Still Trapped As Death Toll Rises In Montecito Mudslides — “Teams of rescuers waded through hillsides blanketed by mud and debris looking for victims of mudflows that killed at least 17 people as the full scope of California’s deadliest flooding event in several decades came into grim focus. As firefighters dug through battered homes, helicopters searched from the sky for survivors who might be trapped behind roads made impassable by downed power lines and waist-high muck.”

The New York Times:Steve Bannon Steps Down From Breitbart Post — “Mr. Bannon’s departure, which was initiated by an estranged financial patron and Breitbart investor, Rebekah Mercer, came as Mr. Bannon remained unable to quell the furor over remarks attributed to him in a new book in which he questions President Trump’s mental fitness and disparages his son Donald Trump Jr.”

The Atlantic:It’s Joe Arpaio’s Party Now — “In a phone interview Wednesday, Arpaio told me the national GOP had moved sharply in his direction in recent years. All that gauzy post-2012 talk of Republicans reaching out to Latino voters and championing “compassionate” immigration reform seems like a distant memory now—replaced by a climate in which the godfather of the birther movement can become president by promising to keep Mexican rapists out of the country with a massive border wall. This, in other words, is Sheriff Joe’s moment.”